OMRC Reaccreditation -- revisited
We have received the evaluator's sheets from the reaccreditation evaluation we completed in April. They were forwarded with a cover letter from OMRC which stated CMRU needs to be re-evaluated in roped-team glacier travel to complete the reaccreditation procedure. The sheets will be available for team inspection at the June Unit Meeting. The training Committee has revised this month's field training to allow time for roped-team practice as outlined below.

June Field Training -- Mt. Hood
Instead of the rock practice originally scheduled for June, the Training Committee has changed the site of our June Field Training to Mt. Hood in order to put in time with roped snow travel. The training will include some late spring skiing in the morning and roped travel practice after the skiing is shut down (about 2 pm). The skiing begins around 7:30 am and a day ticket costs $19. The snow travel practice will take about four hours. If the weather looks good for a climb on Sunday, people are planning on spending the night somewhere at or above the top of Palmer.
If the weather is not good for skiing followed by the snow travel (is that possible?), the alternate plan is to have Scott Linn lead a "visit" to Dynamited Cave. So be sure to bring along your three sources of light as well as ascending/descending gear.

Helicopter Training -- revisited
Thanks to Eric Benson for putting together a great session with the Coast Guard at Corvallis Airport - too bad he wasn't around to attend! The Guard brought one of their HH65 Dolphine helicopters based in North Bend, but stationed at Newport, to Corvallis. The crew of four described what each of them does while operation the helicopter and how we should behave around their aircraft. They opened up the helicopter and showed what gear they carry for land and sea rescue. Following the "lecture," "question and answer" session and static display, they fired up the helicopter and allowed us to participate in several hoist evolutions.
The aircraft is VHF-FM capable so radio communication is possible and they can home on a transmitted signal. We were joined by about a dozen folks from EMR on this practice.

More Helicopter Training -- Oregon National Guard
On Sunday, June 1, thirteen CMRU members joined members from PMR and EMR at the Oregon Air National Guard hangers in Salem for an orientation to helicopters which the National Guard uses in support of SAR missions. The session began with a description of how the Guard is organized and how a responsible agency would go about requesting their assistance. Following that, we were introduced specifically to the OH-58, UH-1, and H-60 helicopters. We were given time to load and unload - both with and without packs. It gave those who attended the chance to become familiar with how confined the space can be once you start loading a bunch of SAR people and their gear on board.
Like the Coast Guard, these helicopters too have VHF-FM capabilities so they will be able to talk directly with ground teams. The aircraft are GPS equipped and usually work in Lat/Long positioning (DDD MM.m).

OMRC Corner -- by Jeremy Adolf, Delegate
At its second meeting since reactivating, the Oregon Mountain Rescue Council (OMRC) discussed several items of interest to CMRU. First, the results of the reaccreditation evaluation. Second, the use of UTM coordinates (if possible) when giving one's location. If you are going to buy a GPS unit, be sure it reads out in UTM as well at Lat/Long (most good ones do). Teams should emphasize UTM training in the coming year. Other topics included a reaffirmation that a team wishing to be accredited by OMRC must meet the standards set down to reaccredit Oregon's MRA teams. If a team wishes to accredit in fewer than all three modules (Rock, Winter, Search) they can be an Associate member of OMRC.